Jail term 'not tough enough' for killer

The daughter of a man fatally punched in the head by her carer's boyfriend says the community needs to wake up and demand tougher sentencing laws.

Jason Mark Grogan, 46, was on Thursday sentenced to at least six-and-a-half years jail for the manslaughter of 72-year-old Alan Henry, who was found unconscious in a pool of blood at his Gloucester home in NSW in January 2012.

Grogan, who had socialised with Mr Henry before their relationship soured, had previously been sentenced to at least 18 years jail for murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter after an appeal led to his original conviction being quashed last year.

With time already served, he will be eligible for release in November next year.

"I think the community needs to wake up," Susan Henry told reporters outside court, adding she was "extremely disappointed" by the sentence.

"It's time we started knocking on the doors of our local politicians and started demanding tougher sentencing laws or that the existing laws be ... revisited."

Acting Justice Peter Hidden said he could not make findings on exactly what happened inside the house, except that Mr Henry had been punched in the head and fell to the kitchen floor.

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The retiree died in a nursing home from complications relating to brain injuries months after the attack.

His daughter says she's had unanswered questions from the moment she saw her injured father in hospital.

"I wanted to know how a human being could do that to another human," she said.

"What happened in Grogan's life to make him into such an animal?

The court heard a police officer had asked Mr Henry if Grogan's girlfriend, who had been assisting him part time, could stay at his house after the couple were seen fighting at a petrol station on the day of the attack.

Mr Henry said she could, as long as Grogan, whom he described as an "absolute arsehole", didn't come to his house.

Later that day Grogan climbed over a fence and entered Mr Henry's house before leaving with a laptop, the court heard.

"You can't just back out now," he allegedly said to his distressed girlfriend after she found Mr Henry injured.

"It has gone too far."

Acting Justice Hidden said Grogan had a long history of criminality and drug addiction.

Someone in the court room on Thursday yelled "dickhead" as the killer was led back to custody.